a.k.a Elpie

It's taken me a long time to get back online in a way that allows me to do more than just converse on Twitter and handle emails. But I am back now, with a new PC, and will be back to publishing more posts very soon. I hadn't realised how dependent I am on my computer until it fried and I was left without one - boy, oh boy! That is not an experience I ever wish to repeat

Some kind folk, whom I had never met, responded to my plea for help and made donations that have allowed me to build a new computer. I'm not quite there yet, but am close enough that you can expect to see new posts here soon.

Google Labs has released a new online tool which should prove useful to web designers and UI developers. "Browser Size" is designed to show web developers which parts of a site visitors can see without scrolling. The result is a graphic visualisation of the percentage of users who can see specific parts of a page, and at what sizes the content can be viewed.

There are several reasons why a plugin developer may wish to exclude their plugins from inclusion in the WordPress update check. Preventing leakage of private data is one reason. Avoiding name collisions with plugins in the WordPress.org repository (and the risk of clients accidentally overwriting a custom plugin during an update), is another.

This simple code snippet will exclude a plugin from the update array.

When WordPress phones home what data does it send back to the mothership? Is it a privacy concern? Most WordPress users are unaware that any personally-identifying data is sent when WordPress runs its update checks. Permission is not sought so most of us probably assume that the only data going out is the minimum needed for the update check to function. Assumptions are great things - until they cause you to inadvertantly disclose far more information than you ever intended anyone else to have.

Matt Mullenweg responded to community concerns over privacy in this comment. He has since said "it was meant as a satire to lighten up the discussion a bit, people seem to be getting a bit serious". Well, personal privacy is a serious matter so, in this post, I set out to disclose the details of the information that gets sent back to the mothership.

Whether WordPress meets the definition of spyware or not the fact remains that, when anyone uses WordPress, personal and personally-identifying data is sent back to the wordpress.org servers without notice and without any options for giving consent.

Most WordPress users are unaware that data is being collected from their servers every 12 hours or so. This has serious implications for privacy.

Read on to see what data is collected and what you can do to protect your privacy.